With the death of Eric Gill a singularly distinctive figure
passes from the twentieth-century stage. The long beard, the monkish gown, the biretta, made him that to the outward eye, and the variety of his accomplishments justify the adjective on other grounds. There can be, and are, many views about his sculpture—and he inspired numerous imitators to convert what may be termed repository art into a kind of repository art-and- craft, represented by unstained oak Stations of the Cross and statues in various angular attitudes—but about the beauty of his typography there can be no two opinions. Everyone who has ever noted the uniform lettering above Messrs. W. H. Smith's bookshops is familiar with it, and printers know how attractive a page of Gill Sans type can make. The Times obituary notice, I observe, states that "Gill poured forth a long series of highly literary works," which rouses curiosity as to what the adjective excised at the last moment was. If it was " controversial " I should agree, though the reason for cutting it out is not obvious.
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